Various winter topic activities. We have been reading Little Polar Bear so have learnt about the North Pole / Arctic and what adaptations polar bears have in order to live where they do. Activities include picture of a polar bear / cards for children to stick on sheet to label (polar bear physical appearance) Jungle / Arctic sorting table with 2 sets of cards for children to sort (set one - facts about the areas, set two - animals) Polar bear adaptations worksheet / facts to stick. Two different versions of this, one is simplified. Short North Pole PowerPoint I have included resources in publisher and PDF format. Used for children in KS1 and KS2 with autism. Also suitable for mainstream pupils / older pupils.

Minotaur 'describing words' word mat Keyword matching activity - 2 versions included Keyword activity to assess / reinforce children's knowledge and understanding of words in the text. Describing words word mat to support children's use of adjectives in their writing - words selected are relevant to the Minotaur. Used for mixed age primary group of children with autism.

A game I made for my small class of learners with autism. Suitable for any small group introduction - e.g. intervention group, speech and language, attention and listening. Learners throw a dice and move around the board. When they land on a question, they answer the question. I like to ask another member of the group a question relating to the answer, to encourage learners to pay attention to each other's answers - my children tend to have very little interest in each other! Supports social skills, attention and listening, turn taking. Used for specialist autism group but appropriate for any mainstream KS1 / KS2 group or older SEN group.

This is an interactive book I made for a ‘Community’ / ‘People who help us’ topic. I printed and laminated all of the pages and stuck velcro on the who / doing / what symbols underneath each picture. I printed the last 3 pages twice, cutting out the cards from one version and using the other version as a base page, on which to keep the cars when not in use. I include 2 options of this book - one with more text (i.e. ‘What is the policeman doing?’) and the other kept simple (i.e. ‘Who doing what?’) I’d be happy to change the frame colours if you use a different colour system for the categories. Feel free to message me. Used for children and young people with ASD / SALT / Learning Disabilities.

Lego challenge cards, symbol supported for non / early readers. Some are Christmas themed as I’ve just made them to try and keep my children busy during this last week. Children choose or are given a card which gives an instruction - e.g. build a Christmas tree / first letter of your name and use Lego to build as instructed. It’s a fairly open ended activity but my hope is to provide more structure and purpose to play for my children with autism as some have very short attention spans and flit from activity to activity without any meaningful engagement. 24 cards in all, best printed onto card or laminated so they last.

This is a pack of Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch resources I have used during a seaside topic with a mixed aged (KS1 / KS2) group of learners with autism. It includes a planning sheet to think about the lighthouse keeper's cottage, differentiated TEACCH style structured sheets to support writing about the Grinling's cottage, and images of the cottage for pupils to stick in their books before writing about the cottage. There is also a word mat to support spellings and jog memories. There is a mindmap type sheet to encourage pupils to reflect upon what the Grinlings thought about the naughty seagulls. There is a symbol supported powerpoint about lighthouses and a lighthouse fact sheet for children to complete. There are also differentiated grammar sheets for learners to decide whether to use 'and' or 'but' in a sentence.

Storyboard - designed for children with autism to reinforce their understanding of the story. Children sorted the order of the text as a group before drawing their own accompanying pictures. With my group of children (mixed aged KS1/KS2) I kept the text on the worksheet but I have included a publisher version so this activity could be adapted to a cut and stick activity, or children could write their own sentences.

Sorting activity for KS2 with SEN. Children cut and stick items into categories.

Cards giving a selection of situations, child uses a clothes peg to select the answer. Best laminated so resource is more durable. I use these with children who have autism but also suitable for KS1 or children with other SEN / SEMH needs. Can be used 1:1 or in a small group. Some of the answers I’ve had have surprised me, even when I know a child well - I’ve found this quite an interesting resource to get to know my pupils in most depth.

‘At the hospital’ - matching activity. Identify things found in the hospital. With this activity , I laminated and put velcro on the base board and matching cards. Two base boards included and two sets of cards for each baseboard - to cater for readers and non readers. Also appropriate for use as a cut and paste work sheet. ‘Who board - emergency services’ - another activity which I laminated / added velcro. Matching images of emergency service workers to their names. Again, also suitable for cut and paste activity if you prefer not to laminate. Suitable for mainstream and SEN - created for KS3 learners with autism and learning disabilities.

Resources used with my specialist ASD class while we were learning about St George (British Isles topic). George and the Dragon Vocab - 6 A4 pages with varied activities focusing on the vocabulary of the story. Pages 1 and 2 - ‘Key word bingo’ we were prelearning / reinforcing the words in the story. I stuck one of the ‘Key word bingo’ sheets in each of the children’s books. Page 3 - these were the words in the bingo (calling cards). I cut these up and kept them in a basket. We ended our English lessons that week with a game of key word bingo using the strip stuck in their book. We just used counters as markers so we could replay. For more able pupils, if they had a picture I would ask them what the work meant or ask them to put it into a sentence. For less able pupils, I would repeat the word and give an explanation to reinforce understanding. Page 4 - activity for a child with limited ability to read or write, instructions included on the page. Page 5 - pictures of key words - learners to write a sentence using the key word. Page 6 - missing word activity with visual cues. George and the Dragon Vocab list - 1 A4 page containing vocab list (2 per page)

This is a PowerPoint used to teach students about Queen Victoria as part of a Humanities topic. As students all had autism, it is highly structured to ensure pupils were aware of what the lesson involved and what they needed to do. This reduced anxiety for several very anxious pupils. Independent working is stressed as this was a development point for the group in question. Taught to Year 7 pupils with social communication difficulties, including autism, as a general'Humanities' lesson. Speaking, listening, classroom and social skills were prioritised. Also suitable for older / younger students. PowerPoint is editable.

A4 worksheet to prompt pupils to recollect what they have done over the summer holiday. Designed for pupils with autism but also suitable for mainstream pupils.

Resources created for an SEN group, aimed at learners with autism, mixed KS1/KS2, during an Indian topic. Included are visual supports and structured activities. As our topic was India with a Geography focus, the blockbuster game also includes land-form questions. Questions are very simple due to the needs of the group, questions also include questions about the identity of Jungle Book characters. The Indian animals booklet is more of a 'tiger fact-sheet' to go with the 'Tigers' power point. I had planned to create a booklet about Indian animals but ran out of time on the topic.

All resources developed for use with primary children with significant autism. Also suitable for KS3. Ancient Greek Intro - where was Ancient Greece? What does 'ancient' mean? What was the Greek alphabet? Gods and Godessess - Basic introduction, simple language Gods and Goddesess - Going to the Temple Simple comprehension - 2 versions, one is colour coded to support learners in finding the answers in the text. Describing Zeus - picture and word mat to support a writing activity (describing Zeus) Greek alphabet - activity

4 oval shapes for learners to draw - self portrait, things I like, my family, what I want to do when I grow up. When these are finished, ovals should be cut out and folded in half. Two halves should be stuck to one oval - making a 'cross' type shape when viewed from above. Apologies for my rubbish description! String can then be used to attach the 'basket' to the hot air balloon. A lovely 'getting to know you' craft for the beginning of the school year. These look nice strung in a line across a window.

This is a simple worksheet I made as part of out Ancient Greek topic, for a mixed aged / ability group of children with autism. Children used a sheet containing the ancient Greek alphabet to complete the worksheet.

This is a 2 page fact sheet designed for my class who were a mixed age primary group, all with autism, attending a specialist provision. This group were working between P6 and approximately a Y1 level. The activity was designed to increase learner’s awareness of basic facts relating to themselves as few of the class were aware of basic personal information such as their full name, birthday and address. As the activity was geared around them, they were more engaged than usual and most were able to remember the key facts after practising asking and answering each other. I also linked this to our maths - taking about how many of each eye colour / shoe size etc and measuring heights, hands and feet. I will upload that separately. Activities suitable for any age group working at this level. Eye is to be coloured in with appropriate colour - in case anyone is wondering why there is nowhere to write the eye colour!

Colourful Semantics / Narrative - Interactive book with an Emergency Services theme. Who?-doing?-what? sentences. I laminated this to create a book, attaching with keyring rings. The child or young person goes through the book identifying who is doing what in each picture. For example: ‘Police officer-walking-dog’ or ‘Fireman-sliding-pole’. Tips: When printing, I printed the last 3 pages twice, using the first copy as a baseboard and chopping the second copy to make individual cards, which I attach with velcro to the baseboard. This works best for me as it keeps the pieces together and is easy to see if any cards are missing. While the child is becoming used to this activity, I talk them through each stage, encouraging them to identify ‘who?’ first, then ‘doing?’, then ‘what?’ Once the sentence is complete, I encourage them to repeat the sentence as a whole. If a child struggles to identify from a full page of options, try offering them a choice or two cards, gradually increasing the number of options as they become more familiar with the activity. Some children need prompts to really look at the picture and think about what they can see.